Arsenal Vs Tottenham Preview

 What timing for Arsenal, having lost both their last must win games, they virtually have no chance at all of winning any title this season, and bang, here comes the North London Derby for them!! Another MUST win, not just for them to stand a better chance of making top4 come end of season, but also a matchup against their most profound rivals in the local league. I should not write much for fear of being biased, so I will delve right into the details.
Arsenal's hopes of winning the FA Cup were crushed last week by Sunderland who surprisingly lost four nil to West  brom yesterday. The Champions league isn't looking good either for Arsene's boys as they have to at beat AC Milan by four goals without conceding a single one to even stand a chance of making it to the quarter finals, something which definitely begs of a miracle in itself because AC Milan are one of the most and best defensive sides this Champions League season.
Tottenham Hotspurs on the other hand have been flying, having beaten another amazingly on form team this season in New Castle United by a five goals margin just a fortnight ago, something that more or less cemented their acclaim to the third position on the league table in their best season in more than five decades. A tough opponent they are going to prove to be to Arsenal this tottenhum side, especially with the passion the approach all games under their manager Harry Red nap.

Arsenal have the best striker in the league who currently has 22 league goals. Laurent Koscielny and Gibbs face late fitness tests. Aaron ramsey (ankle), Coquelin (hamstring) and Squillaci (groin) are all out. Meanwiile, Harry Redknapp confirmed on Friday that Emmanuel Adebayor, Luka Modric, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Rafael Van der vaart are expected to be fit.

Probable Lineups

Arsenal: - Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Vermaelen.  Song, Arteta, Rosicky, Chamberlain, Robin Van Persie, Ggervinho. Formation: 4 – 2 – 1 - 3

Tottenhum: Friedel, Ekotto, King, Kaboul,Walker. Mordric, Sandro,Bale, Van der vaart, Lenon, Adebayor. Formation 4-4-2

AC Milan Vs Arsenal,(running a diagnosis)

So hard to write, and let alone wake up to such a humiliating defeat in a champions’ League game. Arsenal might have felt hard done by by the nature of the Milan pitch, but approaching the game with such a defeated attitude didn’t help matters at all, we were so poor in almost every corner of the pitch, Milan killed off our wings by “relaying” their pitch, and their antics worked to their advantage…. The only person we might have had in our defense was maybe Kieran Gibbs and of course the ever present Koscienly too before he was brought off due to injury. Our goal keeper visibly had an off day, he never looked to be into the game really, and the first goal we conceded was testament to this.

But where did it all REALLY go wrong? We had almost the best squad out there in that game, a squad that could surely have afforded us a win even at the San Siro, I mean we have done it before with even a weaker side (when you look at it in retrospect). Number one, the pitch, yes the state of the pitch more or less killed off all the morale the players might have had when they flew out to Milan on Monday, it was such unsporting behavior from AC Milan to pull tricks only employed by lower division sides who are never sure of their ability, but for a side like Milan to decide and ruin their opponents’ chances by killing off their wing play, was the lowest of lows for any club playing in the champions’ league! Number two, some of our players gave us no advantage by having an off day on the job, chief culprit here should be Thomas Vermalean, I might be the only one that has observed this but ever since his return from injury, things haven’t really been working out for him that much in our defense, i was mostly thinking this was because he was being out of position and so it wasn’t that easy for him to adjust, but well, yesterday he was being played in his favorite Centre Back position.  Another player that had an off day must have been our goal keeper, I noticed it around the 20^th minute, he didn’t really look okay, more than often the camera would zoom on him with his hands around his waist, if you’ve played the game before ladies and gentlemen, you should know how hands around the chest always indicates a beaten attitude, had Sczesny been his normal self, im very sure we couldn’t have been put on the sword as badly as we were last night, he probably could have done much better on all the goals, especially the first and third. Then we had Ramsey in the middle of the park, who was later moved to the wings, I still remember the words by one of the most respected Arsenal bloggers @YoungGunsBlog “Aaron Ramsey, the epitome of everything Arsenal at the moment, trying so hard but having little to show for it” he was spot on, the argument for Ramsey has always been, “he never stops running, covers so much ground and he is still young, he is the future” valid points these, but my question has always been, but what do we have to show in the end for all that? And to be honest, save for the times he has come on as sub (against OM and Sunderland), there’s hardly been much to show for all those efforts by Ramsey save for that goal against Tottenham, I love him so much and yes, still believe he is the future for us but lets be honest with each other here, the boy hasn’t yet reached the level where he can play Creative Attacking Midfielder for Arsenal, not even close, he still needs a lot of things to work on, stuff like how to find the perfect pass, how to pass the ball early enough to avoid a colleague being caught in the offside position, he has to stop those silly back heels too or at least make them when they can least cost us, esp of a chance to score… I can’t remember a match Aaron Ramsey started and didn’t give out the ball through his back heel, can’t remember a single one, and well, he still continues to do it!!

The battle might have been won by Milan for now, but I still believe that just like they managed to put 4 past us, we can as well make up our minds up to go for it when they come to The Emirates in two weeks’ time, we can still approach the game with a better attitude and determination, put away as many chances as we can get right from the onset, yes we can still fight on, its up to the coach and the entire team to come together make up their minds on what they really want out of this.... for the meantime though, Arsenal are better off concentrating on the domestic tasks, they have to do all they can not to lose to Sunderland on the weekend, and as well fight hard to ascend on the League’s table, the Milan game should only be a concern after we have taken care of our domestic duties.

I’m out of here, so hungry and still sad, but I still LOVE ARSENAL to the core!!

peace

Milan have a bone to crunch with Arsenal trying to Fight on!

Arsenal players are waking up this morning hoping that the Blessings and good luck prayed upon them by their captain’s wife the day before  as he lovingly surprised her with flowers on valentine’s day, will descend over them this evening as they get back into the mix of the champions’ league. So much has happened for and to this North London team since the last game of the group stages in this season’s Champion’s league was played. As group leaders, the gunners were able to avoid being drawn against Europe’s football power houses but they however found themselves matched against real giants in the league, AC Milan have won the coveted award 7times in their history and have been runners up 4times in the same competition, a total of 11finals have they played between 1962 and 2005 these rosaneris

Recent run of form

With AC Milan having lost just one game in their entire January fixtures and on top of Serie A, they look the favorites here coming up against a team who just won two of the five games they played in the same period of time, however the gunners will try to sermon upon their fighting spirit that has seen them force their way back into the domestic league’s top four positions a feat that hasn’t been easy at all especially given their awful start to the season.

This battle is seemingly being shaped around experience versus non experience, with AC Milan’s influential players like Clearance seedorf and Kevin Prince Boateng coming around to throw question marks on Arsene Wenger’s squad of young inexperienced players that have failed to secure a single major title for now going to 7years. Boateng actually more or less refers to the gooners as a simply mediocre team by stating that “They lack balance and often look clueless because they lack experience in their squad” a complete contrast to what Arsenal players have been quoted saying about their opponents in tonight’s clash, players like vermalean have come out in praise of AC Milan key players like Ibrahimovic, and stating how it will require defensive discipline from the Arsenal side if they are to come out of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza with any result.

Following last season’s defeat from Tottenham, AC Milan seem more determined to get one back against another North London club who actually have never been knocked out of the champions league by an Italian side.

Arsenal are expected to attack the game right from the start and use the experience from the domestic English Premier league to dictate pace and tempo over their Italian counter parts who are much better suited for a slower and counter attacking game as dictated by the rhythm of their domestic league.

CHELSEA VS EVERTON

 Its always an interesting game to look forward to since at the present Everton have proved to be a team that can match up the challenge that is poised vs the Blues.

what makes it more interesting is that the game is being played at the Godison park, one of the tough places to visit, and also recently Everton have always been performing in the matches they have played against the blues so i really anticipate the magpies to prove to hectic an opponent for the blues, who are in a somehow disappointed mood after a dismal performance against united the last time out

With Steven Pienaar suspended following his red card in Saturday’s Merseyside derby and Marouane Fellaini injured, David Moyes will have to rearrange his midfield and that could see a first start of the season for Mikel Arteta.

Tony Hibbert, Dan Gosling and Phil Jagielka are still missing. Everton are the only side not to lose at Chelsea so far this season, forcing a 3-3 draw there in December.

Chelsea could be unchanged from the side that beat Arsenal 2-0, particularly as John Terry has been given the all-clear after suffering a dead-leg, but Carlo Ancelotti could consider starting with Salomon Kalou and Joe Cole. Juliano Belletti, Michael Essien and Jose Bosingwa are all sidelined.
 

Everton (4-4-2): Howard; Neville, Distin, Heitinga, Baines; Donovan, Arteta, Osman, Cahill; Saha, Anichebe.
 
Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech; Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Mikel, Ballack, Lampard, Malouda; Drogba, Anelka.
Referee: Alan Wiley.

A BATTLE FOR THE RELEGATION THREATHNED

 An interesting match in prospect, with both team struggling down at the relegation places surely a win for either team is a very precious three points to aid either of the team to raise above the relegation places,m so i actually anticipate a good attacking game. i surely anticipate Wigan to Edge out Bolton but just to mention, the later have been really on the upward curve since the sell of one of their best defender, but then they poss a threat in their Arsenal loanee in form of Ryo Miyachi, surely most of the gunners will be watching the match in hope of watching their wonder kid perform for Bolton


with  Bolton without any injury concerns i anticipate to see them parading the same starting line up that got a pint against Everton. and with two wins and a draw in their past four games i expect bolton to edge out wigan, who have performed dismally in the pat six games they have played

Possible lineups:

Bolton: Bogdan; Knight, Mears, Ricketts, Wheater; Muamba, Eagles, Petrov, Reo-Coker, M Davies; Ngog

Wigan:
Al Habsi; Caldwell, Boyce, Stam, Figueroa; McCarthy, Moses, Gomez, McArthur; Beausejour, Di Santo


despite it being a great battle i would anticipate the game to end in Bolton's favor,

BLACKBURN ROVERS VS QUEENS PARK RANGERS

 A battle between two sides who are both trying to fight up their chances and come out of the relegation zones, yes expect a very interesting battle on the field, QPR with their new firepower and a far much better squad depth but then Blackburn will be out to prove their mental strength and with discussions with one of their best players in Samba to give 100% for the team.

QPR defender Danny Gabbidon is missing. The 32 year-old has been sidelined since the 3-0 victory at Wolves with a knee injury and is out again for the Loftus Road clash.
Armand Traoré is likely to return to the starting line-up after a one-match ban, while Kieron Dyer (foot) remains out.
Blackburn manager Steve Kean has a number of injury worries.
Midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen returned from international duty with Norway complaining of a tight hamstring while David Goodwillie reported back with food poisoning after Scotland's Euro 2012 qualifier against Spain in midweek.
Defender Ryan Nelsen is still unavailable with a long-term knee injury, David Dunn has had an injection in an attempt to alleviate a calf muscle problem while Vince Grella is unavailable because of a hip injury.
After the 6-0 thrashing at Fulham last time out, Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock was still able to pay tribute to fans for their 'terrific support'. It was all rather different at Blackburn where supporters were again in revolt after witnessing a 4-0 destruction by Manchester City.
The pressure is intensifying on Blackburn manager Steve Kean, especially with club owners Venky's saying they are preparing a 'plan of action' after the side's woeful start to the season.

This might sound absurd but the truth is that QPR are one of just three teams yet to win at home. They last won a Premier League game at Loftus Road in April 1998.
PREDICTED STARTING LINE-UP
QPR (Probable, 4-2-3-1): Kenny; Young, Hall, Ferdinand, Traoré; Derry, Faurlin; Taarabt, Barton, Wright-Phillips; Bothroyd.

Blackburn (Probable, 4-5-1): Robinson; Lowe, Samba, Dann, Olsson; Hoilett, Pedersen, Petrovic, Nzonzi, Goodwillie; Yakubu. (thats putting in mind that Pedersen  does not pass his late fitnes test)

AN INTRESTING BATTLE BETWEEN THIRD AND SIXTH

A game in prospect it is, yes the clash between liverpool and tottenham.


Liverpool hosts Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Feb. 6 in a huge game for both English Premier League clubs. Spurs can’t afford to drop any more points if they hope to catch league-leading Manchester City who they trail by five points. They need to win this game just to keep pace with them after City beat Fulham 3-0 on Saturday. Spurs have an excellent chance to gain a pair of points on both Manchester United and Chelsea who played to a 3-3 draw on Saturday.
Third-place Tottenham goes into the match just six behind United and six ahead of Chelsea. They’ve won 15 games, drawn four and lost four and have 49 points on the season. Liverpool sits in seventh place in the table with 38 points from 10 wins, eight draws and five losses. They’re hoping to catch Chelsea for fourth place and a Champions League berth, but will also have to leapfrog over Newcastle and Arsenal to do so. They’re five points back of Chelsea, four behind Newcastle and two adrift of Arsenal.
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp made some odd moves in the recent transfer window though by buying the injury-prone Louis Saha from Everton and sending Steven Pienaar to them on loan. It doesn’t make a lot of sense bringing in the 33-year-old Saha when you consider Jermain Defoe’s already sitting on the bench far too often and Robbie Keane, who Spurs loaned out to the Los Angeles Galaxy and Aston Villa, are both a lot better than Saha, as is Giovanni Dos Santos, who rarely dresses. However, it looks like Saha will start against Liverpool since Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor will likely be out due to injuries. Kyle Walker, Aaron Lennon, and Rafael van der Vaart are game-time decisions.
Ryan Nelsen was also brought in from Blackburn for some reason. Nelsen has played in just one game with the relegation-zone rovers this season, so it’s hard to see how he’s going to play at Spurs. Tottenham’s best player so far this year has been Gareth Bale, with seven league goals, and he’ll be depended upon to keep it up at Anfield.
Liverpool will have striker Luis Suarez back in the line-up after sitting out nine games due to being found guilty of calling Manchester United’s Patrice Evra racial names and an obscene hand gesture against Fulham supporters. Suarez’s talents have been missed as Liverpool has just 28 goals in 23 league games with Craig Bellamy leading the way with six. Striker Andy Carroll has finally started to show some improvement and it’ll be interesting to see if manager Kenny Dalglish makes the mistake of sending him back to the bench or playing him up front with Suarez.

Predictions for Liverpool vs Tottenham

Tottenham don’t usually play well at Anfield and didn’t win a game there between 1912 and 1985. Liverpool has won two, lost two and drawn one in their past five games overall while Spurs have won three, lost one and drawn one. It won’t help their causes very much, but it looks like this game could end up in a draw.

predicted starting line-up

my predicted Liverpool starting 11
Reina, Johnson, Agger,Skartel, Enrique, Adam, Henderson,Bellamy, Gerrard, Kuyt, Carrol.

my predicted Tottenham starting 11
Bridel, Ekkoto, Walker, Gallas, Dawson, Parker, Sandro, Modric, Bale, Saha, Lennon

Newcastle on Sunday will aim to continue their pursuit of the UEFA Champions League in a positive fashion when they host Aston Villa.

The St James' Park fixture provides a yardstick for the two clubs by representing the impressive development of the home side and, in contrast, the away team's regression.
Newcastle were infamously relegated to the Championship in 2008/09, but, firstly under Chris Hughton and now Alan Pardew, they have made impressive progress.
The fifth-placed Magpies are a part of what looks like a four-way fight for fourth spot in the Premier League along with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Villa, meanwhile, have gone backwards having previously been regular challengers for Champions League qualification during Martin O'Neill's reign.

Inspiration

The Midlanders finished sixth in three successive seasons from 2007/08, but, since O'Neill left at the beginning of last season to be succeeded on a short-term basis by Gerard Houllier before the arrival of Alex McLeish in the summer of 2011, they have slipped downwards

Ahead of this weekend's lunchtime kick-off against Newcastle, Villa find themselves in the bottom half of the Premier League and they will arrive at St James' Park with haunting memories of last season's 6-0 thrashing on Tyneside.
Villa, though, are better on their travels this campaign and have lost just two of their last 12 league away games, while they will also look for inspiration from Darren Bent, who has scored in four of his last five appearances and now has 100 Premier League goals.
Senegal strikers Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse are included in the Newcastle squad.
Fifteen-goal Ba and new signing Cisse are available following their country's premature departure from the Africa Cup of Nations, with the latter in line for a debut following his big-money January move from Freiburg.

Major doubt

Midfielder Yohan Cabaye serves the second game of his three-match suspension after being found guilty of violent conduct, while defender Steven Taylor (Achilles) and midfielders Sylvain Marveaux (groin) and Sammy Ameobi (knee) continue their respective recoveries.
Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor is a major fitness doubt with back and hamstring spasms.
Agbonlahor is to undergo a special fitness programme with the club's conditioning coach, Adrian Lamb, to try and eradicate such problems after missing the midweek home draw with QPR.


Winger Marc Albrighton (thigh) and central defender James Collins are also battling to be fit while midfielder Chris Herd continues to recover from an ankle injury.

Possible starting XIs:

Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, Coloccini, Williamson, Santon, Ben Arfa, Guthrie, R.Taylor, Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Ba.
Villa: Given, Hutton, Cuellar, Dunne, Warnock, Ireland, Petrov, Clark, N'Zogbia, Keane, Bent.


via sky sport

A CLASH OF SECOND VS FOURTH

United vs Chelsea always a game to look forward too with a lot of expectations for both teams,in a late kickoff today the game  Stamford Bridge in London we expect a game of high intensity.

United has 54 points on the season from 17 wins, three draws and three losses. Chelsea has 42 points from 12 wins, six draws and five losses and needs a win here to stay ahead of Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool for the last Champions League berth for next season. United is currently three points behind City for top of the table honors.
Chelsea has been dropping too many points lately for a run at the English Premier League title and they’re just hanging onto fourth place in the table. They’ve been drawing too many games, dropping a pair of points each time they do. Manager Andre Villas-Boas has been making most of the right moves and substitutions, but glaring errors have hurt the club on the pitch. Many fans feel the squad is getting old, but there are plenty of youngsters here such as Juan Mata, Oriol Romeu, and Daniel Sturridge,
One of Chelsea’s biggest problems of late has been scoring goals. The only time they’ve scored more than one in a league game since December came against the woeful Wolverhampton Wanderers. They managed a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw against Swansea during the week. Manchester United suffered a rough patch with league losses against Blackburn and Newcastle, but seem to be over that now, even though Liverpool put them out of the FA Cup last weekend with a 2-1 win at Anfield. United bounced back in the league with a 2-0 win over Stoke on Tuesday.
It looks like Chelsea will likely have to play without the services of captain John Terry, who was stripped of the England captaincy this week, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel, Ramires, Didier Drogba, and Ashley Cole. Drogba and Kalou are away at the 
African Cup of Nations while Cole is suspended.
As usual, Manchester United has a pretty lengthy injury list and they’ll probably be missing goaltender Anders Lindegaard, defenders Nemanja Vidic and Phil Jones, winger Ashley Young, midfielders Darren Fletcher, Tom Cleverley, and Anderson as well as striker Michael Owen. However, Wayne Rooney is expected back in the squad after missing the last two games. Ben Amos played against Stoke on Tuesday and kept a clean sheet as both Lindegaard and David de Gea weren’t available. Cleverly and Young could possibly make the bench.

once again its a game where we are going to see Chelsea using the services of Torres upfront, surely i expect him to at least up his game today since united defense inst in the best shape that can manage to trouble a striker of the Torres caliber since both there promising and impressive Phil Jones and Vidic are out for the game both with injuries so expect Ferdinand to play today, the lad is not in the best shape possible


MY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE GAME

actually its a game we all look forward to following SAF comments that Chelsea are not in the title race so i expect villas boas to put up a strong team that can match up to united and produce the right results.So i anticipate a game of both ends.

My Prediction
 surely i predict a united win il go for 3-1 in favor of united